If you read only one thing about AI/LLMs this week, make it this:
June 16, 2023
If you read only one thing about AI/LLM this week, make it this: SVPG: Preparing for the Future by Marty Cagan.
- AI will disrupt the ways we build and run products. Right now, we’re using it as a tool to fit our current ways of working, but soon AI will start to change how we work.
- There are huge implications for teams and topographies — teams with AI tools can take on more responsibility, which allows for greater empowerment, less interdependency, etc.
- Great designers, engineers and product managers will use these tools to improve execution, freeing up more time for the creative and thought work that they often have to deprioritize in favor of artifacts and deliverables. Those who focus only on executing on tasks and tickets may find themselves automated out of a job.
- I love Marty Cagan and SVPG — they are pioneers in thinking about the roles product, engineering and design play on highly effective teams. The best teams are empowered to solve problems for customers, not take orders from management and push paper — and AI/LLM tools are perfectly suited to help great teams do great work by unblocking creativity, filling skill gaps, and helping them do more with less. But they will also make certain skills and roles obsolete — you won’t need a whole person focused on formatting user stories or creating project plans any more.
- Of course AI will also change what’s possible in products! We’re already seeing tons of examples of that in the real world. What we’re not seeing yet is companies coming to grips with the fact that they will need to change the way they work to take full advantage of LLMs. This “LLM transformation” is as meaningful as the digital and Agile transformations that came before, and smart leaders will start building AI/LLM fluency in their teams ASAP to get ahead of the curve.